INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Who's Your Customer & How's The Experience?
When focusing on the customer experience in insurance, the first thing an insurer must do is define who the customer is. Depending on a company's channel – direct, captive, or independent agents – the definition becomes not only complex but political and structural. Read more.

Industry Sentiment On Tactics To Enhance CX
Headwinds facing property/casualty carriers are forcing them to focus on policyholder retention at the expense of growth plans, because keeping business already on the books is less expensive than attracting new business. One tactic is to improve the customer experience (CX). Aite Group's latest report explores what carriers and vendors are doing to improve CX in order to increase retention. Read more.

Marsh Proof Of Insurance Blockchain Platform
Marsh, the world's leading insurance broker and risk adviser, has announced it will begin rollout of its Proof of Insurance Blockchain platform to US commercial clients. Marsh's blockchain-powered Proof of Insurance transforms the process from manual and complicated to automated and streamlined, allowing clients to speed up business functions while increasing coverage certainty. Read more.

Cyber Readiness Stalls As Attacks Increase: Hiscox
A sharp increase in the number and cost of cyber attacks is the key finding in a study of more than 5,400 organisations across seven countries, commissioned by insurer Hiscox for its 2019 Cyber Readiness Report. More than three out of five firms (61%) report one or more attacks in the past year, yet the proportion achieving top scores for cyber-security readiness is marginally down year-on-year. Read more.

Vertafore Selects Amazon Web Services Cloud
Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, has announced that Vertafore, a leading software and data provider to the insurance industry, is migrating its business-critical products and workloads to the world's leading cloud and has selected AWS as its standard for artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. Read more.

AFMI Joins MCCG Community, Selects IBS
Antigonish Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company has joined the MCCG Community and initiated their Insurance Business Solution implementation project. AFMI has selected MCCG and their suite of digital solutions to modernize and simplify their operations. Read more.

Legal & General Announces First PRT Transaction
Legal & General Group plc is pleased to announce that it has agreed its first Pension Risk Transfer transaction in Canada for more than CAD 200 million. The Canadian PRT market is an attractive and fast-growing market, which has more than doubled in size over the last five years to reach sales in 2018 of CAD 4.6 billion. Read more.

A.I. In Healthcare – Forging Ahead: Aite Group
Healthcare is at the crossroads of automation, and it's time to “adapt or die.” Artificial intelligence offers the health insurance industry the opportunity to establish and deepen ties with customers, provide a relevant set of products and services delivered through convenient channels, and forge ahead on their path to automation. Read more.

Google and Applied Systems: Six Months In
When Google announced a substantial investment in Applied Systems last October, it was seen by many as an endorsement of the independent agent (IA) channel. So now that the investment/partnership is six months in, what can we say about the progress? Read more.

Snowbirds Oppose Travellers Program Termination
The Canadian Snowbird Association (CSA) announced Wednesday their opposition to the Ontario government's proposal to terminate OHIP's Out-of-Country (OOC) Travellers Program. The program currently provides financial support to Ontario residents travelling outside of Canada for emergency inpatient and outpatient services. Read more.

Westmount Guarantee Opens Vancouver MGA
Westmount Guarantee Services, a member of the Navacord group of companies, is pleased to announce their expansion into Western Canada with the opening of Westmount West Services in Vancouver. Read more.

US Auto Insurers Battle For New Customers
With just 2-3% of new customers entering the U.S. personal lines auto insurance market each year, insurers have only one option when it comes to growing their business: taking market share from competitors. According to the J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study, success in driving new customer acquisition comes down to having a strong brand and meeting customer expectations of convenience and competitive price – for which direct and independent agents are best positioned. Read more.

Ontario Auto Rates In Q1 2019: FSCO
The Financial Services Commission of Ontario has provided an overview of the auto insurance rate change application filings reviewed in the first quarter of 2019. Read more.

IBAO's 2019 Young Brokers Conference
The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario is bringing together some of the broker channel's most promising young minds for its annual Young Brokers Conference. Read more.

FAA Certifies Drone Delivery Company
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao has announced the Federal Aviation Administration has awarded the first air carrier certification to a drone delivery company, Wing Aviation, paving the way for Wing to begin commercial package delivery in Virginia. Read more.

The InsurTech Spotlight features insurance practitioners and InsurTech(nology) providers which are – or are becoming – InsurTechs. In the spotlight this week are:

ProNavigator
ProNavigator is an insurance technology company that uses AI to automate conversations across the insurance value chain and improve internal operational efficiencies. Born from the expectations of an on-demand economy, ProNavigator provides AI virtual assistants that understand the complex language of insurance to automatically handle non-transactional conversations relating to sales, service, underwriting, and claims. Learn more.

Insurego
Insurego is a digital insurance brokerage with a real focus on the customer experience. To make that as good as possible, we have developed a unique customer portal supported by a customized Fortus rater and custom integration to our Broker Management System. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

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From Doug Six weeks ago we launched the InsurTech Spotlight with six inaugural participants. In the intervening period, their ranks have increased to 25, with a 26th undergoing the approval process. They are an interesting mix. (Try resorting the table.) What is – or isn't – surprising? P&C vs. L&H. Some are addressing both segments, but of the remainder, P&C insurance represents a clear majority. (But that may reflect our stronger focus on the P&C segment rather than the actual number of InsurTechs out there.) Maturity level. A couple are “Emerging” and a bunch are “Mature,” but the majority are in the “Startup” stage. We hope to showcase some entries soon which are still “Incubating.” Business type. The majority at this point are InsurTech(nology) providers, but a good number are insurance practitioners. There are probably many practitioners who don't think of themselves as InsurTechs. As InsurTech figurehead and influencer Matteo Carbone said at our 2017 Executive Forum, an organization which has adapted to a time of innovation, customer focus, collaborative culture, and harnessing new technologies for competitive advantage is well on its way to being an InsurTech. He used the same idea for the title of his book, All the Insurance Players Will Be InsurTech. If you are an incumbent, where are you in your journey? Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca